The goal of the PRIMA study is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from commuting to TUM by employees and students. Using apps, we aim to gain a better understanding of mobility behavior. Additionally, incentives are provided, and information on sustainable mobility is shared.

The objective of the “PRIMA” study is to gather insights into the commuting behavior of TUM’s students and employees regarding their study and workplace. Specifically, two measures will be tested to encourage participants toward more sustainable behavior. First, the use of Tradable Credit Schemes for the mobility sector (MobilityCoins) and, second, a specially designed mobility behavior evaluation represented by a score, the mobiScore.

By participating in the experiment, you are making a valuable contribution, enabling us as researchers to derive actionable recommendations for a successful transition in transportation based on the insights gained.

The team consists of researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) working in the following departments and chairs:

Chair of Traffic Engineering and Control: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus Bogenberger, Isabella Waldorf, Dr.-Ing. Johannes Müller, Philipp Servatius

Chair of Urban Structure and Transport Planning: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gebhard Wulfhorst, Dr.-Ing. Julia Kinigadner, Yihan Xu, Lea Zuckriegl

Sustainability Office: Florian Dietrich 

Your personal data will be treated with strict confidentiality and will be used solely for conducting our PRIMA study. There is no sharing of data with third parties. During the study period, your personal data will be processed exclusively by TUM employees and app providers directly involved in the project. Your contact details (email) will be deleted after compensation has been paid out.
Data processing within the project team is pseudonymized, meaning that contact details are assigned a code. Third parties cannot directly trace this information back to any individual.
Long-term stored study results will be anonymized by appropriate aggregation, ensuring that no conclusions about individual participants can be drawn.

Your data provides an essential contribution, allowing researchers to derive recommendations for a successful shift in commuter mobility behavior based on the insights gained. This project also contributes valuable findings for shaping and guiding the TUM Sustainable Futures Strategy 2030.

Current methods for collecting mobility data to plan the transportation system can no longer easily capture the complexity and dynamics of mobility in 2024. For example, describing intermodal trips (combining various modes of transport) is not easily achievable with self-managed travel diaries. An app automates data collection and significantly reduces the time required for data collection.

The study first involves a selection survey that you need to complete by October 21, 2024. Afterward, you will be contacted via email. In the email, you will receive a registration code for the TUM Mobility App, which you will need to install on your smartphone.
For the study period from October 28, 2024, to December 20, 2024, you must activate the app’s tracking feature to record your daily commuting routes, with particular focus on your trips to TUM in the mornings. Besides the app's passive tracking, all you need to do is verify the recorded trips in the app, make any necessary adjustments, and confirm the trips. For more information, see “Using the TUM Mobility App.”
After several weeks, some participants will also receive access to a second app, the MobilityCoins App, which must also be installed on your smartphone. If you are one of the participants asked to install the MobilityCoins App, please check your MobilityCoins balance daily and make any necessary purchasing decisions (buying/selling MobilityCoins). More information about this app can be found under “Using the MobilityCoins App.”
Another group of participants will receive an analysis of their TUM commuting routes via email, evaluating the routes’ sustainability using the mobiScore.
Additionally, all participants will receive two more surveys during the study period, in addition to the selection survey.

For full participation in the study, you can receive a maximum compensation of €50 in the form of a voucher of your choice. The payout depends on decisions you make during the study period. The compensation may be paid out under the following conditions:

• You are present at TUM on average at least twice a week during the period from October 28, 2024, to December 20, 2024.
• You have the TUM Mobility App tracking activated most of the time from Monday to Friday during the period from October 28, 2024, to December 20, 2024.
• You participate in all three surveys during the study period.

If you are physically present at TUM less than twice per week for several weeks, or if you do not track your routes to TUM with the TUM Mobility App or complete only two surveys, you will not receive compensation. Merely completing the survey does not entitle you to compensation.
If you are unable to work in the office or be present at TUM for a few days due to illness, this will not affect your eligibility for compensation.

Android:
To use the app, you need Android 6.0 or higher.

iPhone:
The app supports iPhones from model 6s with iOS version 13.4 or higher. You can find your iPhone model and iOS version on your device under Settings > General > About. You can also check under Settings > General > Software Update to see if your iOS is up to date.

What settings do you need to configure on your smartphone?
Android:
In the app settings, the option “Tracking active” must be enabled.
In the smartphone settings: Make sure the app is allowed to use your location. Go to Settings > Apps > TUM Mobility App > Permissions > Location ON.
Ensure that you do not have Battery Saver mode activated, as this may interfere with the app’s function. Go to Settings > Device Maintenance > Battery. For more information, see Troubleshooting.

iPhone:
In the app settings, the option “Tracking active” must be enabled.
In the smartphone settings: Make sure the app has permission to access your location: Settings > TUM Mobility App > Location > Always. It is also necessary for the app to access your fitness data: Settings > TUM Mobility App > Motion & Fitness: Toggle ON.
Don't worry; we do not access your heart rate, activity levels, or diet records. The permission is needed to access your iPhone’s CMMotionActivity data, which informs us about your current motion status. Since iPhone 5s, Apple has collected CMMotionActivity data in the background using various smartphone sensors, indicating if you are walking, running, in a vehicle, or stationary. This helps us manage the app’s Sleep/Wake function, providing you with lower battery consumption and more accurate results.

How do you know if location services are turned off? How do you enable them?
Android:
On Android, you can access location services directly from the app. Simply tap on “GPS is off,” and you will be directed to system settings. Please confirm “Access my location” as well as “GPS satellites” and “Wireless networks” under location sources.

iPhone:
For iPhone, open Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Here, location services must be generally enabled, and the TUM Mobility App must always have access to location services.

Android:
On Android, you can access location services directly from the app. Simply tap on “GPS is off,” and you will be directed to system settings. Please confirm “Access my location” as well as “GPS satellites” and “Wireless networks” under location sources.

iPhone:
For iPhone, open Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Here, location services must be generally enabled, and the TUM Mobility App must always have access to location services.

Yes. You have the option to disable tracking in the app settings. If you disable location services or withdraw location permissions in your smartphone’s settings, tracking will also stop. If you later re-enable location services and want to use the app again, you will need to manually reactivate tracking in the app.

Using location services—especially GPS—consumes battery power. However, the app is configured to be highly battery-efficient, minimizing battery usage. In addition to GPS, other smartphone sensors and smart algorithms are used to reduce battery consumption, such as by minimizing the frequency of location queries. We are continually working to reduce battery consumption further. When the app is active and tracking, it uses about 3% battery per hour on our test devices. We estimate that the app actively tracks for no more than 4 hours per day under normal use. However, since this can vary by device, we recommend charging your phone overnight.
The app sends collected data and travel routes to our servers, typically over Wi-Fi when the phone connects to a Wi-Fi network. Thus, the impact on your data usage is minimal (about 2 KB per day). If you do not regularly have Wi-Fi access, you can enable data transmission over mobile networks in the app settings. Under typical usage with mobile data enabled, around 2.5 MB of data is consumed per day.

The app records data wherever you use your smartphone, which is not necessarily limited to your city. By capturing a holistic view of your travel behavior, it can reveal which modes of transportation you prefer and how active you are.

Once the consent form is confirmed, the app is installed, and GPS usage is activated, data points are collected. Participation in the study involves storing user data and recording sensor data, which provides information on spatial coordinates, timestamps, and movement states. From these data points, segments with various modes of transportation and associated attributes like duration and length are calculated. If the app is used over an extended period, multi-day movement profiles are created.

• Time of localization
• Geo-coordinates and accuracy (determined by the GPS chip)
• Acceleration values (measured by smartphone sensors)
• Gyroscope data (measured by smartphone sensors)
• Barometer/air pressure data (measured by smartphone sensors)
• Magnetometer data (measured by smartphone sensors)
• Movement activity from the operating system
• Confidence level of movement activity detection
• User agent (device type, operating system version, app version)

We take the protection of your data very seriously and treat it confidentially. All information we collect is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Additionally, we consult external data protection officers to ensure full compliance.

Pseudonymization
Recorded sensor data and the movement data derived from it are separated from your identifying information (user data) and assigned to a user through a pseudonym (UUID). This means your movement patterns are collected in a pseudonymized manner. Observing recurring locations could potentially allow inferences about places like home or work, which is why we handle all data with great sensitivity. For long-term storage, only further anonymized data is retained by generalizing the tracks.

ISO-certified
After being recorded in the app, the collected data is transmitted to an ISO-certified data center located in Germany, where it is stored in a database. ISO certification represents the highest international certification standard for information management systems.

Encryption
Data collected by the app is transmitted exclusively through cryptographically secured encryption methods.

Opt-out
Study participants can request the blocking or deletion of their individual movement data at any time. Data deletion requests can be sent via email with the subject line "Please delete movement data" to prima.experiment.vtk(at)ed.tum.de. The email should be sent from the email address used for app registration, or that email address must be included in the message. All data will then be removed from the live system and excluded from further analysis. Data deletion is irreversible and will also apply to all storage media, including backup storage. However, due to technical reasons, deletion from backup storage may be delayed. All data stored in the app will be deleted when the app is uninstalled.

As a user of the app, you have the rights to revocation and objection under the GDPR. In accordance with Article 8, paragraph 3, and Article 21 of the GDPR, you may object to the use and recording of your data at any time and revoke any previously granted consent for data use. To exercise these rights, please contact prima.experiment.vtk(at)ed.tum.de.
Please note that by exercising these rights, you may breach the participation terms, potentially resulting in exclusion from the project.

For data access requests, please send an email with the subject "Data Access Request PRIMA," including the email address used for registration, to prima.experiment.vtk(at)ed.tum.de.

Once you have registered in the app, you only need to let the app run in the background. To improve data collection accuracy, please regularly review the automatically detected modes of transportation and confirm or correct them as needed.

Yes. In the app, you can view your daily tracks and get an overview of when and with which modes of transportation you traveled to different destinations.

You have the option to manually correct or confirm recorded routes, transportation modes, and activities, helping the system improve its results.
To view and confirm your recorded tracks, go to the calendar view in the app. Days with recorded but unvalidated data are marked with a colored dot. Once you validate your tracks for a particular day, the colored dot will turn gray.
To access an entry, click on a date marked with a colored dot. The upper part of the screen displays a map showing your routes, and the lower part shows a list of individual segments. Scroll through this list to view all recorded segments. If the suggested transportation mode or purpose is incorrect, click on the list entry to edit it.

All segments or days marked with a red dot have not yet been fully validated. Any segment you click on or edit individually will automatically be considered validated, and the red dot will disappear. If you do not want to make changes to an entire day, you can validate the whole day at once by clicking the red checkmark.

You can revisit and make changes to your routes and stops at any time, and these changes will be automatically saved.

The app was developed by the German company MotionTag based in Potsdam.